When a dog bites a man, it's not news

In a piece of “news” that I’d file in the “so what” category, Reuters, along with several people in the right wing anti-Saudi blogosphere, is surprised that St. Valentine’s Day isn’t celebrated in Saudi Arabia. Hmmm…if there were a Catholic theocracy, would we expect it to celebrate Ramadan? Apparently these folks at Reuters are so ignorant that they don’t realize the “St.” is because Valentine is a saint, a genuine Christian martyr, and martyrs of that variety are not exactly popular among Moslem theocracts. This bit of nonnews ranks right up there with Jack Ryan propositioning his wife for sex, but I’ve already seen it repeated as if it was a big deal in several places. Amazing…